The latest bit of insanity in the air travel world is breaking across the internet right now and this one has to be the absolute craziest yet…
Mitchell Ring and Jennifer Colin are an Australian couple that was travelling from Melbourne to Doha on the way to Italy recently and had what can only be described as a nightmare happen right next to them.
Tragically, a female passenger was walking back from the bathroom when she suddenly collapsed in the aisle next to the couple. The flight crew immediately sprung into action and did everything they could to revive her, but she wound up passing away. Obviously, that’s incredibly awful and extremely rare, but what happened next made everything so much worse.
Mitchell and Jennifer were approached by flight attendants and were simply asked to move over, as there were empty seats in their row. They told the Australian outlet A Current Affair that they said “Yes, no problem” and then the flight crew placed the recently dead body in the seat next to them, covered with a blanket. They stayed like that for the remaining 4 hours of the flight.
A photo of Mitchell uncomfortably sitting next to the corpse has hit the internet, showing just how weird, and terrible, of a situation it was:
Passenger forced to sit next to a corpse for 4 hours on a Qatar Airways flight pic.twitter.com/Hcz32nBxYP
— The Daily Report (@thereport_daily) February 28, 2025
In the A Current Affair interview, both Mitch and Jenny were noticeably shaken and gave the flight crew credit for their valiant attempt to save her, but they noted it was very hard for them to watch and deal with themselves. They were also frustrated with the flight crew in the aftermath, as there were additional open seats on the flight but they were told to stay put, though Jenny did go sit in the row across the aisle when invited by another woman.
Even when the plane landed, Mitch was forced to stay in his seat, next to the body, while police and medical teams came onto the plane and began unwrapping the blanket from the woman, a sight Mitch will never forget:
“[Mitch] They told us in our area “Stay in our seats”. And then the ambulance officers and police came in, and the ambulance officers started pulling the blankets off the lady, right beside me. I was there. And I got to see her face, yeah it wasn’t nice.”
Again, their physical and emotional distress is obvious but when the host asked if the airline had reached out, either they one booked through or the one operating the plane they were on, the answer was a shocking no:
“[Mitch] – No, we haven’t heard from anybody.
[Jenny] – No one at all, we’ve sent several emails to Quantas [the Australian airline where they booked the flight], one when we were in Doha, and nothing…
[Mitch] They have a duty of care to their customers as well as their staff. We should be contacted to make sure, “Do you need some support? Do you need some counseling? This has never happened to us before, I don’t really know how I feel and would like to talk to somebody to make sure I’m alright.”
This poor couple was left completely high and dry by the airlines. In no way are the companies to blame for this lady’s tragic, untimely death, but given the size of the organizations and amount of resources they wield, they should absolutely try to make things as good as possible for their customers who had to go through this, especially because it was airline representatives who forced them to sit next to a corpse for four hours.
To drive home the point that they feel abandoned, Jenny ended the interview by saying:
“Thank you to Current Affairs for listening to us because no one else is.”
To their credit, the couple is trying to make the most out of their vacation, which was supposed to be one of the biggest of their lives, but my hearts absolutely go out to them. It’s clear they are not okay.
Qatar Airlines originally made a statement to a number of media outlets:
“First and foremost our thoughts are with the family of the passenger who sadly passed away on board our flight. We apologize for any inconvenience or distress this incident may have caused and are in the process of contacting passengers in line with our policies and procedures.”
They then provided a follow-up statement to People, where they contradicted the claims made by Mitch and Jenny in the interview.
They said the actions of their crew members were “in line with training and industry standard practice” and that they had offered support and compensation to the family of the deceased and those “directly affected” by the incident.
“Passengers were accommodated to other seats, and a crew member was sitting at all times with the deceased passenger for the duration of the flight until landing in Doha.”
This could all be a matter of timing, as the People statement came a day or so after the Current Affair interview but it should absolutely not have taken that long for them to hear something. You’re telling me they just sent those poor people out into the wild of an airport after going through all of that? That’s simply not right.
Hopefully Mitch and Jenny get the help and support they need and can make the most out of their trip to Italy but my goodness, what an awful ordeal they went through to get there.
The post “We Haven’t Heard From Anybody” – After Forcing Them To Sit By A Dead Body For Hours, Qatar Airways Leave Distraught Couple High & Dry first appeared on Whiskey Riff.